dialectical
adjEtymology From Latin dialecticus + -al. By surface analysis, dialectic + -al or dialect + -ical.
1
Of or pertaining to dialectic; (in philosophy) logically reasoned through the exchange of opposing ideas.
- Sure, maybe. We know — have long known — that romanticism and fatalism are dialectical lovers.2025 July 21, Jean Garnett, “The Trouble With Wanting Men”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2025:
2
Synonym of dialectal (“of or pertaining to a dialect”).
- For I, and no doubt You, have long obſerved, that thoſe Dialectical ſubtleties, that the Schoolmen too often employ about Phyſiological Myſteries, are vvont much more to declare the vvit of him that uſes them, then increaſe the knovvledge or remove the doubts of ſober lovers of truth.1661, Robert Boyle, “Physiological Considerations Touching the Experiments Wont to be Employed to Evince either the IV Peripatetick Elements, or the III Chymical Principls of Mixt Bodies. Part of the First Dialogue.”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […], →OCLC, pages 14–15:
- Derived terms
- dialectical behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, dialectical behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, dialecticalisation, dialecticalization, dialectical materialism, dialectical method, nondialectical, undialectical
- Related terms
- dialect, dialectic, dialectically